Brrrrrrrr....

The weather outside is frigid but the learning inside room 10 is HOT. We had a week of inside recess and we are ready for the weather to get a bit warmer so we can run off some of our energy.

Our storyteller friend, Miss Luray came and told us stories and worked on our retelling skills on Thursday.  This helped us with our retelling and comprehension skills in reading and writing.

In math, we learned about the greater than and less than sign. Comparing numbers is becoming a breeze and now with new math signs it becomes even better.  We have not forgotten base ten, though.  On Friday we went “ice fishing” and caught base ten fish.  It was fun.

In our word study we have moved onto long vowel sounds.  At first we looked at “Sneaky E” that makes the vowel say its name.  Next week we will focus on the long sound of “A” and words with ai, ay and a_e.

Coming up: Our science unit of living and non-living will start in February, Super Bowl Fun for Friday, and Report Cards.

Enjoy the snow.

Martin Luther King Jr. Portraits

Happenings

This week has been jammed pack with good things.  Each day we have learned a different part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.  We learned how to step by step make a portrait of him.  They are fantastic.  I will try to post a few pictures of them this weekend for you. (I have yet to post a picture so I will need some time to figure it out).  Check back throughout the weekend for them.  Everyone who walks by stops and gives a compliment to the class.

The step by step also helped reinforce our Writer’s Workshop.  We have been writing how to’s and the drawing lesson helped our writers understand how important it is to include each and every step in the writing process.  We also make pinecone bird feeders for our feathered friends and wrote about them.  They are hanging outside our classroom window.  The students are enjoying watching the birds come and snack on them.

In reading, we have separated into small non-fiction leveled book groups.  We are working on finding the topic of the book and then supporting ideas that help out the topic.  I related this to Santa Claus (as the main topic) and then all his elves (supporting facts).  Santa cannot do his job without his elves as helpers.  That visual has made it more concrete for some of our learners.

Place value with ones, tens and now hundreds is beginning in math.  We are learning how to add 2 digit numbers using longs and cubes.  Next week I will start to show them how the numbers look in a number sentence, not just in a pictorial manipulative form of longs (tens) and cubes (ones). This is a tough concept but is getting easier with more practice in class.  I have been prepping the class for this unit since day 1.  I think place value is so important and a solid foundation of it will make math easier in all areas in the years to come.

This week we learned the rule about making plurals with either adding s or es.  Next week we will be learning about silent e. The long vowels are coming.

Valentine’s Day is coming and I am in need of help.  I am looking to collect empty cereal boxes to use for Valentines holder for each child.  If you have any empty cereal boxes at home, any size, please send them in to school.  Thank you.

Back into the swing of things…

Welcome to 2013.  This year will be jammed packed with fun activities and you will see your child’s progress begin to zoom like a rocket taking off.  I can hardly wait.

In the past few days I have started to ramp up the adding and subtracting activities in class.  As part of our Common Core Curriculum, 1^st graders need to be fluent in adding and subtracting 0-20. So please continue to use the shake and take games that we made in the classroom in the fall.  I will be sending home more flashcards to add to the game.  Also I am asking the children to start to mentally think of the sums and differences.  Not all are ready to put away the fingers or manipulatives to count with and I understand that this will take time but please continue to practice daily at home.  It is an important skill to master.

January also brings new reading and writing units of focus.  We are learning how to write “How to” books in Writer’s Workshop.  Our first attempt to write came by way of a very yummy and sticky activity.  We made smores in class using the microwave.  Who knew.. smores by microwave.  It was a neat hands-on, brains growing lesson.  We saved half of the smore to go home and show you.  Over the weeks your child will learn to write their own how to books of their own topics.

In reading we are now focusing on informational texts (non-fiction).  So far we have sorted non-fiction vs. fiction and also learned the impact of print in text.  We found various types of print in our book bins. 

This week the students have also been experimenting with the cold.  We have placed a cup of water outside our window and check it to see if it has frozen.  This daily, and sometimes bi-hourly, checkup also reinforces temperature and thermometer readings too.  In addition, I have stressed to the students that we need to dress appropriated for the season.  Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for outside recess too. 

Speaking of winter and cold weather… next week’s theme is snow.